The Part That's Holding On
by MysticSheWolf
Summary: After the events of "The End" things have been back to normal; however, when Slade returns, Raven is kidnapped. A new alliance of enemies have formed. Slade's has a plan to take over the city with his bare hands. Obsessed with finding his friend, Robin takes a personal mission to stop Slade before Raven gets hurt. No matter what it takes.
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone! I am pretty excited about this story. It will most likely be a slightly long one. I will update what I can. Please review, I would love to hear what you guys think! If you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them. Enjoy!

CHAPTER 1

Raven woke up from a restless night. It was light in her room, but the darkness still remained. Her books neatly piled, her small statues scattered about and her uniform on the ground beside her bed. She had not felt to put them in the dirty clothes pile due to her massive headache.

 _Ugh_! Raven groaned to the pain. She got up and walked slowly to her bathroom to take some medicine and to take a hot shower. Once she was done she approached her bookcase. Raven scanned her collection and tried to decide what to read. She had just finished her book and was interested in reading _Fire,_ a book she had bought a few weeks ago. She picked up the book and walked towards the living room of Titans Tower.

"I got you now Cyborg!" Beast Boy yelled out as he passed Cyborg in their racing game. "Oh no you don't, you little grass stain!" Cyborg barked back. Obviously, the game has been going on for a while if name calling has reached the point of "grass stain."

Raven walked over to the kitchen and put on her kettle. Glancing around, Raven found no sign of Starfire or-

"Good morning, friends!" Starfire flew right in and greeted her friends. _Could she be any louder?_ Raven placed her hand on her temple, squinching at the pain. Hopefully, Robin wasn't feeling as cheery.

Starfire flew over to Raven. "Good morning, friend! Do you feel well this beautiful day?" Starfire was Raven's best friend. Although, it seemed she was Raven's polar opposite, she was always...there for Raven. Even when she didn't understand, she always tried to be there for her.

"Morning Starfire." was all Raven said in response. The pain in her head was too great to hold a longer conversation. Starfire's smiled faded as she noticed Raven's frown. "Are you... well, friend Raven?"

"I'm okay, Starfire. I just have a headache. I plan to go back to my room after I make some tea." Starfire seemed confused, but said "Can I help remove your 'head-ache?'"

Raven gave a small smile. "No, I'm okay Starfire. Thank you though. I took some medicine, I should be fine in a few hours." That seemed to work to cheer Starfire back up.

"Maybe we can go to the mall of shopping later, if you feel better?" Starfire gave Raven her puppy eyes. _I suppose I should, considering I haven't in a few weeks._ "Sure, I will let you know."

Starfire nodded and hovered towards the boys. Raven glanced around again and still saw no sign of Robin. _Probably obsessing over evidenceor working out_. Raven had a moment of selfishness and imagined Robin working out... sweaty, shirtless. She immediately shoved the image out of her head. She didn't need to think about that right now. She left swifty out of the living room and walked towards her room. Feeling that she had forgotten something.

Robin had been doing his morning exercises and had just taken a shower. He looked at the mirror. One of the only few times he ever sees his eyes. Deep blue, he was reminded of his parents. He had always been told he looked like his father, but had his mother's eyes.

" _Mommy! Mommy!" A small, six years old Dick Grayson hopped slowly to his mother, holding his knee. His mother was gardening in the front yard. She was beautiful, even with the small amount of dirt on her face. She walked over to him. "Oh sweetie, what did you do this time? Did you fall and hurt yourself?" He nodded, admittedly._

" _Don't worry, you will be fine. Come over here." Dick moved and sat down on the steps to the front door and his mother walked in for a moment. "I'm a big boy, I am not a baby" he muttered to himself, squinching at the pain. His mother walked back outside with the first aid kit and bandaged him up._

" _Thanks mom." His mother smiled and then frowned when she saw her little boy avoided looking at her. "You are a strong boy, Richard. Don't let anyone tell you different. You can overcome anything. Even the smallest accomplishments can make the biggest change. I'm proud of you."_

Robin shut out the rest of the memory out. He wiped away the tears trying to fall. It was a beautiful morning, he didn't need to damper it with memories. The mask covered his eyes and hid the pain he couldn't bare the other Titans seeing. They didn't need to know what today was. He just needed to stay busy, act normal and...be happy.

Robin left his room. The hallway was quiet. Some small echos of the team traveled to his ears as a loud whisper. He thought of what he should do today. He figured he would get a call from Alfred sometime this afternoon. Bruce usually just believed in giving him space, just like did when Bruce needed it. It was a silent way to support each other. There was only once or twice when Robin cried in front of him and Bruce just...hugged him. He just let him cry to get it out.; never said anything, just held him. Robing figured it was just the way Bruce was, but most likely-

"Ow! Robin!" Raven fell to the floor, holding her nose. Robin quickly rushed over to her side. "I'm sorry Raven, I didn't see you!" he helped her up and checked her nose. No blood. Thank god.

"You walked right into me." Raven roared. About to pick up her book, but Robin beat her to it. Robin's masked eyes fell and frowned. "I really am sorry Raven. I'm just distracted today. I should've paid more attention."

Raven knew when something was wrong. She also knew was Robin was "distracted" it was never a good sign. "It's okay. Is something wrong?" Robin shook his head. "No, just didn't get a lot of sleep, I'm fine" he said a bit too quickly. She raised an eyebrow at him in question.

Robin raised his hands in defense. "Really, I'm fine!" She clearly knew he was lying, but decided not to push him. When he was ready to tell her, he would.

"Well... can I have my book back?" He glanced at his hand and noticed he still held her book. Embarrassed, he gave her the book back with a muttered "Sorry."

Raven turned on her heel and headed back to her room. Robin watched as the dark girl walked away. He was thankful she didn't press on him of what was wrong. Out of all the titans, Raven knew the most about him. She knew that his parents had died and some of his life with Batman. He could never forget the bond they shared after she had tried to help him when he hallucinated Slade. Though she never let him see her mind.

He figured after the events of her fulfilling her prophecy, she would have been more open to him. All that really changed in the dark girl was that she spent more time with the rest of the titans and seemed calmer, as if a weight was lifted off her shoulders. Though, he always wondered if there was more she had tried to hide from him. There was always a sense he had that something was... off with Raven on some days, but did not question her because he always got that annoyed stare of hers. He paid her the same respect she paid him: she would tell him when she was ready. Robin continued his walk to the living room.

The doors opened to the living room and Robin saw Beast Boy and Cyborg go at what appeared to be an intense racing game. He probably will play the victor. Robin smiled when he saw Starfire turn to him with her bright eyes and gleaming smile. "Good morning, friend Robin!"

"Hey Star, have you had breakfast yet?" She shook her head. "I'll make something, do you want pancakes?"

"That would be glorious! I will get the mustard!" Robin shook his head. How Starfire became so obsessed with mustard he would never know. He had tried to explain to her that it was a condiment, not a drink. For the most part, she didn't drink as much of it. Robin went to the fridge and pulled out the ingredients and grabbed some orange juice. Starfire sat at the table waiting patiently for him, but seemed bothered.

Robin raised an eyebrow "Hey Star, are you okay?" Starfire merely looked up to face him. "I am worried about friend Raven, she said she has a 'head-ache' I am worried that the Glordians have perhaps-"

"Starfire, headaches are not anything to be concerned about. They can happen for many reasons. She probably just didn't sleep well or ate something funny. I get them when I don't get enough rest." Robin dismissed Starfire. She unfortunately often worked herself up by assuming the worst.

Starfire's lips curled downward-didn't seem fully convinced. Robin gave a warming smile "Star, she will be okay. I know Raven, she will probably stay in her room all day if we don't have any missions, so we will leave her alone until she feels better." Starfire's lips curled up high and shut her eyes to give an even bigger shine to her face.

Robin went back to making breakfast and made up the mixture for the pancakes. "Beast Boy, Cyborg, you hungry?" Suddenly, the game paused and they hopped quickly over to the table. "Hey Robin, make some bacon too! I haven't eaten all day!" Cyborg yelled to his server. Beast Boy joined in "No meat, but you know how I like my tofu, right?!"

Robin sighed, but complied. "If it doesn't come out right, it's your guys' fault for not helping!" The team just laughed in response.

 _I hope Raven is okay._


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry for the late update. School has really been slamming me with test after test.

Chapter 2

Raven was finally back in her room. First thing she did was tear off her cloak. She sat on her bed to read her book in hope that it would help distract her. She knew Robin was not well, but she sensed she knew why. There was an old pain in Robin's heart; she got a small glance of it when she had to enter his mind over a year ago. There were falling bodies in what looked to be a circus. Robin must have witnessed a tragedy.

 _Who were those people? And who were they to Robin?_ Raven had wondered for some time, but never questioned Robin about it. She knew the ramifications of entering his mind: an unbreakable bond and the necessity of unending trust in another. She had to trust that he would one day tell her what had happened to him. She had tried to save her leader who later became the very person who knew her the best in the world.

She had tried to hide her prophecy from all of them, to maybe prevent it from happening, but she failed. She couldn't bare the idea of losing her friends to an unspeakable, horrible death. Slade would have tortured them in front of her if he had the chance. He would have made her see the fire minions of her father burn them slowly alive and worse.

Raven had tried to not think about that anymore. Robin saved her and gave her the courage to stand up to her father and as a result, saved the world. She banished him back to the depths of hell where he couldn't use her or anyone ever again. She was able to move on with her life. It had been six months now, she should be over it by now. _Trigon is gone...but why do I still get a bad feeling? He can't hurt me anymore...he can't hurt me anymore._

There was a small knock on the door. "Um, hey Raven, you in there?" She instantly recognized the voice: Robin. She walked to her door and summoned her cloak to her and hid her face. She opened the door just barely enough for Robin to see her face.

Robin smiled. "You forgot your tea in the living room. I thought you might want it." Raven's eyes flickered to the mug in his hand. She had forgotten her tea? _I must be going crazy!_

"Thank you" Robin handed her the tea. There was a awkward silence between the two birds. Raven sipped her tea. It was still a little warm. Raven dared to look up and found her leader staring at her.

She frowned. "What?" Robin shook his head. "Nothing, I just... I don't know." She raised an eyebrow. Robin was acting strange. "Robin, if you need to talk about something.." She trailed off hoping he would speak up.

"No, I... I don't want to bring it up, but I noticed that it was six months ago you defeated Trigon. I wanted to make sure you were okay." Robin looked away from her expecting her to yell at him for bringing it up.

Raven simply said, "I'm fine. Things are different now. Like you said, I have my whole life ahead of me." She looked down at her tea. "I guess...I just don't know what to do or what I want." Robin's eyes shot up and stared at her.

"Well... most girls... um... want boyfriends or new clothing." Raven looked up and glared at him. Robin felt the small drop of sweat on his forehead. "What I mean is... uh, you're very pretty and without the whole prophecy thing, you could easily find a guy who will see how great you are!" He blurted out.

Raven's cheeks flushed at the comment. _'very pretty?'_ _He couldn't mean that. He's just being nice._ "Um, thanks, but I know I'm just known as the 'creepy titan,' I doubt I have a line of suitors like Starfire."

Raven was unfortunately reminded of that yesterday. They took down a pair of bank robbers and the young men in the bank kept trying to give their numbers to Starfire. Of course with her lack of understanding of human customs, she didn't understand that they were trying to date her.

"Raven..." Her eyes met Robin's. The flush on her cheeks were ignited. "Raven, everyone is great in their own way. You aren't like Starfire, yes, but you understand more than her, not just because she is an alien, but about life and... you're unique." Robin's masked eyes seemed to be falling deeper into Raven's

Without realizing it, Robin took a step towards Raven. "I think... you're an amazing person Rae." He reached for her free hand and gently grabbed it. Raven couldn't help but just stare at Robin. There was a heavy silence between them.

Raven felt the butterflies in her stomach and her throat tense. Did he really mean what he said?

Raven gulped. "Robin, I-" The alarm sounded, red lights flashing. It was Cyborg's voice on the intercom. "EVERYONE! WE HAVE GOT A SERIOUS PROBLEM HERE!"

Robin let go of Raven's hand and began running. Raven teleported her tea to the table and followed him.

Cyborg pulled up the footage on the large screen of living room. The alarm was a security alert for BioTech Industries. A prototype weapon was being stolen. Though there was a vague description of what the weapon was for, it was not what the titans were worried about. It was the mark of an 'S' they saw on the security footage.

Slade.

"It cannot be! This is awful!" Starfire gasped frantically. She had learned to hate the man that called himself Slade. He had nearly destroyed her friends, made Robin become his apprentice and tortured Raven. She remembered when she saw her clothes ripped to shreds. It was Raven's birthday when Slade came back from the dead. The horror on Raven's face made her want to cry. She was not going to allow any more of this.

Cyborg felt his stomach sink. _I thought he was gonna stay quiet at least for a while!_ Beast Boy walked up to his metal friend. "I thought Slade would have honestly retired to some beach after being Trigon's little lap dog." Beast Boy gave his joke half-heartedly. Despite the severity of the situation, he was just as worried.

He looked at Cyborg. "Cy...Raven-"

"Will be just fine!" Raven interrupted. She knew what he was about to say. She didn't want to hear it. Slade was only a puppet to Trigon's games. He only messed with her because Trigon wanted him to-even if he probably got a sick pleasure out of it.

"Report." Robin demanded. "The automated security systems at BioTech Industries went off. Probably when this guy-" Cyborg pulled up the footage of a silhouette walking through a small hallway. "walked through the lab door with the wrong key card. Systems were designed to alert all police and us if someone with a level of three or lower keycard entered the lab."

"Why don't they just restrict access to those with a level three or lower?" Raven inquired. Cyborg glanced over his shoulder. "I read something about the company having issues with internal theft."

"Well, it doesn't matter now. We need to stop him. Titans go!" Robin yelled to his teammates and they rushed out of the tower.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The city streets in downtown Jump City was quieter than usual. The city lights flickered ouside of the BioTech building. It rained hard earlier that evening. The roads glimmered with reflections of the city titans arrived quietly and Beast Boy went ahead and did a silence search surrounding the building in his eagle form. Robin looked over at his green titan. Beast Boy shooked his head; this meant that there was no sign of who was responsible. Not only was there no people around for at least two miles, there were no police. Robin's masked eyes narrowed in response.

Raven used her soul self to open the front door. No alarms went off. "Power must be shut off, I can't get even a power signature from the whole building. Whoever did this, this must not be his first heist" Cyborg said quietly.

Robin signaled the titans to move forward. "Titans, prepare for anything, but search to find the person responsible or any workers. Someone must be here."

The team followed behind Robin and did as instructed. Starfire used the light of her starbolt to search through a few conference rooms. Nothing. Beast Boy transformed into a dog and sniffed around the main entrance into the bathrooms. Raven levatated herself up to the second floor and began her search there. There were three labs with no one in it. Raven had the sense that there was a presence within the buiding besides her teammates. It was someone familiar, but could not pinpoint who it was.

" _Something's very wrong here"_ she thought.

Cyborg and Robin went downstairs to find the breakers for the building. "Looks like I may be able to get main power back on by using some of the back up generaters, but the most we will get is lights. Someone trashed most of the breakers."

After the power returned, the titans regroup to report their findings with shaken heads. Robin's gut told him something was off about this.

"I don't understand. It's as if this whole building was cleared out hours ago before the alarm was even tripped. It's as if someone wanted-" BAM!

A blast sounded and the titans went to cover. When the smoke cleared there was at least five hundred of a familiar group of robotic minions. Slade's minions. Which meant Slade was somewhere nearby.

"TITANS GO!"

The titans separated and began to strike each of the minions that attacked them. Starfire fired her starbolts and was then restricted by two minions who jumped from the second level ontop of her and she fell hard onto the ground. Beast Boy ran over to his alien friend and transformed into a gorilla and tore the minions in pieces.

Cyborg blasted a few minions, but was quickly overrun by their weapons and took cover behind a pillar. Robin was bashing the minions that surrounded him. There was a few second pause. Robin looked up and saw a siloheute.

Slade. Robin fired his grapple and was pulled to the third floor and chased after him, leaving his team behind.

Raven torn apart minions with her telekinisis and threw the desk aganist the wall smashing five minions that were firing at Cyborg. "Thanks Rae!" The presence she had sensed earlier seemed closer. She glanced around and saw her fellow titans fighting their own hundred of minions. They covered each other and were slowly winning. She saw a minion run down the hallway on the other side of the room. Raven caught a glance of something in his hand.

She looked again at her friends and pointed to the theif. "He's running off with the weapon!"

"Go ahead Rae, we got these guys" Cyborg called out. Raven nodded and flew after the minion.

She followed him back to an emergeny exit and was outside. It began to rain again, but that was the least of her concern. She prepared for the minion to jump out and attack her. She looked around and saw no one. The stray cat was eating, undisturbed, some trash at the dumpster.

Raven looked behind her. There was a brick wall on the other side. Unless this minion used rockets, there was no way he escaped. Raven turned her head in front of her and gasped. The minion had snuck up on her, but this was no ordinary minion.

He did not attack her, but was only a few inches from her face. The face seemed to smile. "Hey, little birdie, did you miss me?" Before Raven could react, she had smelled a strange smoke and blacked out.

The minion caught her before she could fall. He placed her on the ground and placed a black collar around her neck. He picked her up bridal style and held her close as if she were to break like glass.

He disappeared in the darkness with Raven in his arms.

"STOP!" Robin yelled out to Slade. They were running up the flight of stairs that led to the roof. Slade managed to keep the distance between him and Robin. Robin pushed himself to run faster, but only to lose sight of Slade behind a door.

Robin bashed the door open to the roof and his clothes began to get wet. He looked around and saw no sign of Slade.

"Oh Robin, you do have the same bad habit of leaving your friends behind to come and find me. You must have missed me dearly." The same dark voice that haunted Robin's dreams seemed to come from only inches from his ear.

Robin turned to throw a punch to find no target. Robin's masked eyes widen. "If you wanted a fight, all you had to do was ask." Slade came behind of Robin and threw a punch to his gut. The pain was instrutiating, but he managed to dodge the second throw.

The fists flew back and forth. Robin managed to dodge most of throws. He jumped back to kick Slade in the chin, but hit no target. He got back to feet and found Slade standing in the shadow of the neon lighting of the BioTech Inc.

His voice was too calm and collected. "Robin, as much as I would love to... catch up, but I'm afraid I have many things to do and do not have the time."

Two of Slade's robotic minions jumped Robin from behind with a successful hit to his back. He yelled out in pain and fell to the ground. He rolled to avoid the next fist that would have slammed into his chest and threw two of his 'rangs and sliced their heads in half.

Robin rushed to his feet and found no trace of Slade. Gone. _What the hell does he have planned?!_


End file.
